Astrophysical (completed)

Chapter 1

Cassie began to wake up from the fall she thought she had. The sensation of heaviness in her muscles and how she didn't feel as if she could lift any part of her body quickly took over. The next thing she noticed was that the surface beneath her was very cold and smooth. She wasn't at home anymore because the only floor she had that could match this was the linoleum covering her kitchen, but it never got this cold in the spring. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking frequently from the intense bright light that was surrounding her. When her eyes finally adjusted, she began to look around.

The room was bare. There didn't seem to be any furniture anywhere and it had a monotonous palette. The walls were mainly white, matching the floor, but on the side across from where she lay, there was a black square. It felt ominous and unfriendly, especially because the whole room was huge and yet it didn't seem to have any purpose at the same time.

She touched her head and tried to remember what had happened. Last she knew, she had gone to her kitchen to get some water as she continued working on her project which was due in two days. She then had felt dizzy and had reached out for her counter before everything went dark.

Cassie finally regained enough strength and enough consciousness to push herself off the floor and into a sitting position, running a hand through her short platinum hair. She didn't think she had fallen so hard to knock herself out and there didn't seem to be any pain from it, but an anxious feeling began to grow in her stomach as she wondered where she was. This wasn't a hospital, seeing as she wasn't in a bed or hooked up to any sort of monitors, but it had that sterile feeling of one. Plus, where was everyone?

As she began to stand, she noticed a new light coming from the black square. It was a faint red and yellow glow. She wondered if this was a giant monitor or television. She walked over and as she got closer; the lights grew. As soon as she got up to it though and saw what was going on, she realized she had been severely mistaken. This was no monitor or simply designed piece.

It was a window. And she was nowhere near home.

Before her lay the vast emptiness and blackness of space. She could see stars all around, some closer to her and some farther away. Awestruck, she placed her hands upon the window to steady herself from another fall. Besides the amazing sites, there was also a battle going on between two large spaceships in the vicinity.

A long silver spacecraft, like the ones she saw in movies, was very close and firing canons of intense power towards the ship she assumed she was now on. It wasn't firing back though, and she didn't think the ship was being hit either as it was not rumbling or shaking.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked aloud as thoughts spun around her head.

Behind her, she heard a door open, and footprints became prevalent, as well as a radio saying loud and clear, "Someone hurry and tell me how the shields are doing on the west side! Come on guys, this isn't the time to screw around!"

Cassie turned and came face to face surprisingly with a man a bit older than her. He had greying short hair, wearing a suit that looked like it was made of rubber and latex in the colours of blue and black. He had a couple of wrinkles, but they were drawn tight to match his stunned wide-eyed expression as well as his sudden paler complexion.

Neither of them moved as they looked each other up and down. It was clear that neither of them seemed to understand what the other one was doing there, and that made Cassie's stomach tighten even more.

"White! Hobbs! God damn it, someone report!" The radio suddenly echoed. Then a different voice came on the receiver, "Hobbs here sir! Shields are still intact! We can make the jump!"